Have you ever read a book where the main character is constantly getting in their own way without realizing they are? This is that book. Bella is her own worst enemy; she reacted rather drastically to all the changes happening around her in a way extremely out of character for her.

She channels her frustration and all her pent up energy into going out of her way to have these escapades and then writes about them with a fairytale twist and uploads them to a writing website. After her stories gain traction, the escapades escalate and then casualties begin to happen.

I’m glad Bella finally has her aha moment and realizes all the damage she’s left in her wake and makes the amends she needs to. This isn’t really a romance romance story between a couple it’s more Bella’s personal journey and the relationship is a secondary storyline. I enjoyed the story but I wasn’t Bella’s fan through majority of it. It’s a quick read so that’s definitely a plus.

Rating 3.5 stars



Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Bella is an aspiring author who instead is a receptionist for a literary agent. She also isn't where she wants to be in her personal life, always looking for that HEA. When her post on an app where people can share and review stories starts to gain some traction she essentially goes viral. The story chronicles her journey in a somewhat magical way, to find her own happily ever after.

This book was entertaining. I felt like Bella was an interesting character with a quick wit who kept me engaged. While some of the stories about Bella's dating life felt a little fantastical, the overall story and characters kept me interested and engaged.

Overall I would give this one 3.5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an EARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fun romcom that is wonderfully pulls from classic fairy tales as Bella decides to chronicle her quest to find her prince charming she writes about her less than ideal dates in reference to classic fairytales. An excellent premise & overall a fun read.

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams is an overall good read. However, you have to get past the main character, Bella. She drove me crazy throughout the book and I had a hard time relating to her. She is self absorbed and "mean girl". The premise of the book is great and I like how it is a feel of everyone has a story, but one persons story will be different from another. I'd read this author again!

I don't know what it was about this book but I was not a huge fan. I think the FMC was just a little to immature for my liking. Her inner monologue was not jiving with me.

Bella Marble is an unlikeable character. She is mean and vapid. I had hoped that with growth she would become better, but she really didn’t. The book seemed to drag because I couldn’t get passed how much I disliked her. The cover is gorgeous. I had high hopes, but found myself disappointed by the book.

The concept of this British rom-com pulled me in from the beginning. In a quest to find "the one" and break out a writing career, the heroine writes about her series of dates (well one- night stands to be honest) fashioned around popular fairy tale situations. I did find the comparisons rather funny at times, but Bella Marble is not my preferred heroine. At 29 years of age, she has no direction in life, no self-respect in her sexual escapades, and most of the time acts like an immature brat. I just prefer my heroines to be, well, smarter. I may have related more to her in my early 20s, but in my 40s, I just couldn't help but shake my head. I did like how she managed to finally grow up a bit and find some direction in her life, so she did end up mostly redeemed by the end. I enjoyed Luci Adams' writing style and the gorgeous cover, and so I would look forward to reading more from her in the future.

Thank you to #NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Bella takes a look at her life and takes note that it isn’t what she thought it would be. Not even a little bit. Rather than being settled down and happily married to the love of her life raising a family, she is single, employed as a receptionist at a publishing house instead of being a published and celebrated author, her parents, the people she holds up as the up as the gold standard of happily ever, are splitting and her BFF and roommate is moving out to marry the worst guy ever and so much more. Her life is so far off the path she planned that knows some immediate action is needed. While trying to move forward and see whats next she uses all of her experiences as material for her writing. Some of it is amusing and witty, some of it incredibly immature and left me wondering how old she really was. It was an okay read for me, but I found a lot of the drama self created and not as interesting as I’d hoped. I just didn’t really connect with or enjoy the antics of the main character, Bella.

I was a little weary of this book after reading reviews. However, I ended up enjoying it more than I expected.

Bella Marble works as a receptionist in publishing but really she wants to be a writer. She also wants her best friend to dump her boring boyfriend Mark because he hates Bella. She also wants to find her happy ever after.

After an uneventful one night stand, Bella has the idea to write a book of her journey to find her happy ever after. Of course - the guys will have to fit the part of fairy tale princes.

I hated the characters from the beginning but I really appreciated the growth they experienced. By the end, I was satisfied with the book, even if I didn’t like all of the ups & downs along the way.

Overall, a solid 3 stars for a book that I enjoyed more as an audio than as a kindle read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Not That Kind of Ever After had some sure moments. It was easy to see the ending. Unfortunately we had to deal with Bella being a self absorbed idiot for most of the book. I found myself yelling at her multiple times.

This is a cute and poignant story. Luci Adams reminds us that we each have a story. "My story isn't your story" is my interpretation of Luci's message. We all have a path and it's not linear, but it's wonderful all the same

This book wasn't at all what I expected.
I had a hard time not disliking Bella from the start. She wasn't very friendly but she was also just annoying in general. I had a hard time getting into it and even though I tried to push myself, I shouldn't have had to as much as I did.
When I want to read a romance, I'm looking for someone that while they may be going through hard times, they can still be strong in some ways. & sadly I never really found that with Bella and I just didn't care for the story much.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me try this story.

This was not what I thought it would be. It was not bad but was not great. It was real. How you wake up one day and realize you're life is so far off course and you don't know how you got there. Her life is one disaster after another and though I felt bad for her, I didn't like her much as she was annoying in my opinion

This book was a lot more fun than I expected, and I had high expectations! At times I was a little annoyed with Bella's lack of self respect and self reflection vs the standards she put on others, but I really enjoyed her journey. The book within a book premise was super fun and all the characters we met really added a lot. 4 stars and a great read!

Such a great binge-worthy read. The dynamic and relatable characters came more to life with each page. The story kept me wanting more until the very end.
Highly recommend.

A super cute romance with every fantasy trope you could want in a novel. I really enjoyed this book.

Oh, Bella! How I can relate to modern age dating. I love, love. So this book hit me right in the feels of everything I am currently going through!

The concept is so fun. I loved the idea of turning her dates into stories that were fairy tale retellings. I think Bella was just a hard character to connect with. She seemed rather naive throughout the book, and I just didn't see as much growth in her character as I would have liked.

I received this book as an advance reader copy and I was happily impressed. It was a bit of slow start for me during the first couple chapters. Mainly, because the main character was a hot mess and constantly made decisions that I would never make. Of course this was all apart of the plot and the character development, so I’m not holding the slow start against the books rating.

I felt the characters all had great personalities. Not in the sense that they were all fantastic heros but that they were all real. There was great representations of all sorts of people and relationships, which was nice to see in a romance. Overall I would give this 3.5+ stars!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

🎧Song Pairing: Ever After - Bonnie Bailey

💭What I thought would happen:

I was here for the cover and title tbh was hoping for a retelling.

📖What actually happens:

Bella is an aspiring writer working at a literary house as a receptionist when she has the brilliant idea to start turning her life into modern day fairytales through one night stands (ie the Big Bad Wolf, Pied Piper, Prince Charming). She signs up on a beta reader website and submits chapter by chapter and is shocked when she gets positive feedback.

While the beginning of her writing career finally takes off her better half, Ellie, gets engaged to the insufferable Mark and will be moving out. Mark is always undermining Bella and ripping Ellie away from her. She wants things to go back to how they used to be.

🗯Thoughts:

The beginning had me kind of bored THEN it actually got quite intriguing and I was cruising through THEN there was 💯 unnecessary conflict and the book went too long and had me going 🤦🏼‍♀️

The MC is actually an awful character. She treats everyone as disposable or the bad guy. While sometimes she is the victim, most of the time she’s just a real asshole. At least there is a character arc where improvement is made.

This book was 10/10 unnecessarily long. At first I was like how does this book have such a low GoodReads rating (3.27) around 80% I definitely understood. I literally said out loud you stupid entitled bitch.

Loved the concept and definitely loved certain parts but there was major room for improvements for this one to be stellar! Mic drop.